The meeting entitled "Nucleic Acid Enzymes" will focus on the structures, mechanisms, biological roles, and medical relevance of enzymes that are composed of, and/or act on DNA and RNA. The meeting attracts a broad cross-disciplinary group of scientists with expertise in structural biology, biochemistry, and cell biology. This meeting will be the 6th sponsored by the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) in this area; the most recent was in 2004. The meeting provides a unique forum for the discussion of enzymes that are composed of, or act on nucleic acids, the central role of DNA and RNA enzymology in biotechnology, and the growing list of metabolic disorders and diseases in which nucleic acid enzymes are implicated. By bringing together structural biologists, biochemists, cell biologists and clinicians to discuss common interests, new insights and interdisciplinary collaboration are fostered. [unreadable] [unreadable] The Scientific Program will consist of eight sessions of oral presentations by distinguished invited speakers in the following subject areas: (1) Polymerization and Fidelity; (2) Nucleases; (3) Nucleic acid processing and modification; (4) DNA repair; (5 & 6) RNA catalysts and splicing I and II; (7) Recombination and transposition; and (8) peptide bond formation by RNA. The organizers have recruited leading investigators to serve as discussion leaders for these sessions. The Program will also include daily poster sessions, from which outstanding posters from graduate students and post-doc attendees will be selected for short oral presentations. To foster a 'fresh' approach and significant intellectual turnover and renewal, the majority of invited speakers are new to the meeting, and a significant percentage are junior faculty and women in science, as described in the proposal. [unreadable] [unreadable] The FASEB 2006 meeting aims to highlight several emerging themes in nucleic acids enzymology: the application of single-molecule methods to study of nucleic acid enzymes, the interplay between peptide synthesis and RNA processing, the parallels between enzymes involved in DNA metabolism and those of the RNA world, and the burgeoning impact of nucleic acid enzymes on biotechnology and medicine. The intimate format of the conference is designed to promote free exchange of information and ideas among researchers who work on diverse aspects of RNA and DNA enzymes - thereby expediting research in both fields. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]